Ashlyn's Cast

I never would have guessed that the first kid in our family to break a bone would be my sweet little Ashlyn. But sure enough, it was. Over a simple pillow fight even. Seems she hyper extends her limbs (loose joints like her Daddy) and her Doctor said she will be prone to injury because of it.

It happened on Thanksgiving Day. We had dinner at my brother's house and the kids were having fun running around and being silly. Toward the end of the night, Ashlyn runs up to me crying saying she hurt her arm. She's not one to calm down quickly when hurt, so I didn't think much of it. We went home, put an Ace bandage on it, and put the kids to bed. The next day it was swollen and she couldn't bend it very well. We kept it bandaged and gave her some motrin thinking she must have sprained it. The day after, even her hand was looking swollen. So we took her to urgent care. They x-rayed it and said she had a broken elbow. They put her in a splint and gave us the number to a pediatric orthopedic doctor in our area. That was Saturday.

On Monday, I called the number and got an appointment. Turns out the doctor wasn't really in our area, more like Tarzana, but whatever. It was a mad dash to get down there in time to be "squeezed in". But once at the office, we sat and waited for about 2 1/2 hours before seeing the doctor (lucky for me my Dad was in town and him and Heather watched Brandon and Leah while I was gone). We FINALLY got called back and I swear the doctor was so old. He shuffled around the office barking orders at his nurses and seriously looked like he had one foot in the grave. Oh well. He looked at the xray, said it was just a hairline fracture and to cast it for two weeks. Whew! That wasn't too bad afterall. Ashlyn chose her favorite color, and we were off.

Two weeks later, back at the same office, they took a" saw" to her poor little arm and cut that cast right off. Then the doctor told me to make sure she gets more calcium and that she can't play at school for the next SIX weeks (lucky for her that winter break is three of those six weeks).

Through it all she was extremely brave. I was so proud of her. And she even conceded and let me take a few pictures of her before heading down to get it taken off. I told her she'll want to see them when she's older and she'll be glad I took them.

Jingle Bells (batman style)

As most of you know, Batman is a very popular character around our house. As is the Batman version of Jingle Bells. We decided it needed more to it, so this is our rendition of Jingle Bells (batman style). Feel free to adopt it in your own home if you'd like, but don't tell me if you don't like it. We're not pros here okay!

Dashing through the snow,

In the Batmobile we go.

Through the street of Gotham,

We are so awesome!

Joker thinks he's cool,

But he never goes to school.

Fighting crime all day is neat,

As we're running down the street!

OH....

Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg

Batmobile lost it's wheel and Joker got away!

Brownie Scouts

Many of you know that Ashlyn was in Daisy Scouts the past two years. Well, at the end of last year, she had to quit because her leader was going back to school and no longer had time to commit to it. There was no one else that could step up to lead (I was tempted to, but being pregnant put an end to that temptation), so the troop dissolved. I was so sad. Ashlyn was so sad. But then a couple of months ago, one of the moms decided she could do it and they reformed the troop (although much smaller this time). Ashlyn is so excited and so am I. They had a Holiday party last week to get re-aquainted and will start up regular meetings every other week after the New Year!

A little Pre Christmas Fun

This past weekend we got together with my Aunt and Uncle for a little Pre Christmas celebrating since they will be out of town for Christmas. We had a delicious ham dinner (courtesy of my mom since I am pretty much completely preoccupied with my little fussy man most of the time). It was delicious and I must have been hungry because after it was all said and done, I think I ate two complete plate fulls.

Here are some photos from the weekend.

Paul couldn't look up because he would have messed up his game. Oh brother!

Leah and Grandma Dana

Me with my little man sporting his totally awesome batman attire. Brandon thought that was pretty cool!

We had 7 adults and 6 kids at our house. It was a "bit" crazy!

Brandon opening his gift from Aunt Rhonda and Uncle Jim.

Awww.....

Proof that Ashlyn does have a cast on. She doesn't like me taking pictures of it. She'll be glad she has a few once it comes off (which is TOMORROW. Hooray)

Leah got dressed for the occasion in her pj's of course.

Heather put this beautiful picture frame together for my mom. It made her cry of course. It made me realize how FEW pictures Paul and I have of just us. Gotta do better about that.

Here is our attempt at getting a photo with me and all FOUR children (unfortunately Paul was already at church). Is someone missing you say? Oh no, just look to the left behind my hair. He's there.....hiding.

Little man is starting to smile. It's rather cute, but hard to catch on camera still. This was my best attempt at it. Isn't he adorable! Yes, I think so too!

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is December 1st! Are your kids Christmas countdown chains ready to go? Ours are.

(Thanks to a little reminder from my oldest)

(Just incase you were wondering, Leah's chain is different because she made hers at preschool.)

Thanksgiving Day

We went to my brother and SIL's house for Thanksgiving. My dad came in town. We ate and ate and ate and had lots of fun, even though my brother broke his nose playing flag football that morning and Ashlyn broke her elbow in a pillow fight that night. I still have so much to be thankful for. A wonderful husband who supports me and helps me in more ways than I can count, four beautiful children who keep me busy, my health and strength to take care of said children (although I could use a bit more sleep these days), my testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (don't know what I would do without that), my wonderful home (that I still consider a miracle that we even got), a fantastic extended family that I love and miss everyday, Paul's job (especially during this scary economic time), and so many more things that I wish I could name one by one, but my baby is crying at me, so I must wrap this up.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Funny little guy

I was trying to sneak a rolo from the newly placed Christmas candy dish that was on the dining room table. Brandon saw me and promptly ran over and asked me what I was eating. To which I responded...."nothing". He looks at me quizzically and responds, "I want some nothing". Hahaha...I'm still laughing about it. I just love that funny little guy!

A few photos

This is what Leah does for a lot of the day. Her gymnastics moves, mixed with some "diva". Yesterday she insisted on wearing her swimsuit most of the day. Don't know why, but whatever!

I finally talked Brandon into letting me get his haircut. It's quite an ordeal around here. I used to try and do it myself, but he throws such a fit, he ended up with a buzz cut earlier this summer. I was fine with that for the summer, but I didn't want that happening again. So we tried taking him to get his hair cut the same time as Paul thinking he might think that's pretty cool. Yeah....not so much. So I took him back to the same place we went for his FIRST hair cut. And voila...he went for it. I tried to take a picture of him and this is what he gave me.

A whole lotta mad!

He's actually trying to hit the camera out of my hand in this shot. Either that, or hit me. I prefer to think it's the camera he's going after.

But then later that day.....he was all smiles. And even asked me to take his picture. Go figure! So here you have it. I know it probably doesn't look that different to you, but to me, it looks WAY better.

And here's my other little guy. He's not too happy with me right here.

But he soon got over it.

He still sleeps quite a bit. And eats. And poops. Ah, the life of a newborn. Then he throws in a few (or more) screams when the above items aren't working out as fast or in the way he would like. But doesn't he just look so angelic in this picture. It's like once they fall asleep or get all comfy in your arms, you are totally over the fact that they were just screaming at you a minute earlier.

Look how long he is. He doesn't even look like a newborn. I'm sad about it. He's suppose to be itty bitty. But it seems that every one of my kids has been an inch longer than the last. Plus he was a pound heavier than my previously biggest child (Leah). So I'm trying to savor his newbornness, even if it is most evident in his sleeping patterns. Ha....

He's still so very sweet and snuggly and I love to cuddle him.

We did have Halloween (sort of)

One good thing (for us) about Halloween being on a Sunday this year, was that my kids didn't miss much in the way of festivities (since we weren't going Trick or Treating anyway). So our fun started on, let's say, Thursday night. Even though it wasn't a Halloween movie, we did get to all go to a screening of "MegaMind" at Dreamworks and the kids thought that was pretty cool. And while I am not a huge fan of superhero movies, I must say I really liked this one. It had a fun story and you really felt for the characters. Plus my cute hubby worked on it for almost a year, so look for his name under "modeling" when you go and see it. Cuz I know everyone is going to it, RIGHT!

Ashlyn was out of school on Friday, so we all got to go down to Dreamworks again (yes, thank you Dreamworks for making my kids Halloween more fun) to have lunch and enjoy some trick or treating around the campus. They had a fun pumpkin carving contest, games for the kids and we got to watch the new "Scared Shrekless" Halloween special that aired on TV the night before.

This is the pumpkin that won. Pretty cool huh!

Brandon wouldn't put on his costume, for the second year in a row. Good thing I just borrowed one this year from my SIL. So no money lost.

Saturday was our Ward's Trunk or Treat. We had our traditional Chili cook-off, which I did not participate in. I decided Chili gave me too much heartburn, so I made "Chicken Love Soup" from a recipe I got when we were in the Encino Ward. Unfortunately, it was a bit too popular (I don't think many kids like chili) and it was gone before I got any. But then again, I didn't have a huge appetite that night and got in line kind of late.

Heather and Blaike

The cousins minus Brandon

Leah catching a donut on a string. I guess it was another rendition of bobbing for apples.

Brandon found his little buddy Elijah and they started to wrestle. At least, I think they are wrestling and not fighting.

Some fun trunks all decked out.

Blaike traded his wig for an empty candy bag, so Tyler put it on. It was his attempt at being festive I guess.

Sunday, well you know how Sunday went. The kids came up to the hospital that night to see their new brother and then Paul and his mom took the kids out to dinner and then home for the night.